Twin Suns in the Sky
by ObsessedFan1
Summary: AU: Leia makes it to Tatooine and delivers her message to General Kenobi as her father instructed. But somehow, a simple mission turned into an adventure with an old Jedi General, a scruffy and annoying smuggler, a walking carpet, and a naive idealistic farm boy.
1. Chapter 1

**An AU I've been considering writing for a while. I finally decided to do it. I'm just scared that I won't finish it.**

**Disclaimer: If I had the hundred-billion-zillion dollars that Disney would charge for it, I might own Star Wars. Unfortunately, I don't.**

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Leia stared unseeingly at the pristine white wall of her cabin. _'I hope that I can find General Kenobi,'_ she thought.

A loud knocking brought her of her reverie. "Come in," she called. A golden protocol droid opened the door and he and a R2 droid came in at her beckon.

"Princess Leia, Captain Antilles wishes for me to tell you we are in the atmosphere and we will be making our descent to the planet soon," the droid pompously stated.

"Thank you…"

"Oh, I am C-3PO, human cyborg relations. My services are at your disposal. This is my counterpart, R2-D2."

Leia nodded absently, still trying to think of any and all scenarios of what could happen on this planet. Several loud beeps emitted from the R2 unit, sounding oddly urgent for a machine. "Now R2, the princess–" The droid was cut off by a loud banging and the ship shuddering violently.

Leia sprang immediately to her feet and grabbed the stolen plans off of her portable desk, knowing that despite her efforts to evade them, the Empire had found them. Either that or it was just space pirates, but she wasn't naive to believe that. "Come on!" she ordered the two droids.

The three rushed outside of the room into the hallway outside. Seeing all the armed security detail rush to the entrance of the ship, Leia pulled her blaster out of its holster and headed down to the escape pods, the two droids following behind her.

As they walked to the adjacent part of the ship, several powerful shudder shook the transport. A loud alarm started blaring, echoing in the princess' ears. She grit her teeth together as C-3PO's voice rang out behind her,

"Did you hear that?" R2-D2 beeped a response. "They destroyed the main reactor! We'll be destroyed for sure! This is madness!" R2-D2 gave him several more loud beeps and squeaks.

Abruptly, Leia realized that she had made a mistake in her navigation of the ship, and instead of going to back way to the escape pods, she had gone the way that cut directly in front of the main entrance. One of the men getting into defense positions noticed her, and gave her a confused and incredulous look. Leia motioned to the escape pods beyond the hallway, then lifted the Death Star Plans and indicated to the droids behind her.

"We're doomed," C-3PO said, "Princess, there won't be an escape this time." Leia ground her teeth again. That droid was getting extremely annoying. She looked toward the security officer who'd noticed her before, and he glanced at the sealed door before gesturing frantically for her to cross.

She did so, entering the escape pod area and making sure that the R2 unit kept up with her, while easily losing the protocol droid. "R2," she muttered to the droid, "I'm going to put these plans into your memory system and then I need you to record a message for me." He beeped something that sounded affirmative. Leia quickly placed the data into the small slot and waited while the information locked itself into the droid's systems.

Once it finished, she yanked out the empty disc, leaned over, and turned the few dials that would start the recording.

"General Kenobi," she started, letting the speech come naturally to her, "Years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars; now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person; but my ship has fallen under attack and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed. I've placed information vital to the survival of the rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope."

As she finished, Leia turned her head at the sound of the fighting coming closer. At the same time, the protocol droid has finally realized that his counterpart was missing and was calling for him.

"Go,' Leia whispered to the little droid. She retreated into the nearest alcove, and watched as the two droids headed towards an escape pod. She waited for a few more moments before heading towards another pod and started manipulating the wiring expertly. Her fingers seemed to move on their own and she found herself relaxing, as she always did when messing with mechanics.

The sound of boots nearing brought the tension back to her shoulders. She finished rewiring the pod controls as fast as she could and scrambled in just as stormtroopers entered the area. Breathing as heavily as she could without attracting attention, Leia slowly slid farther into the pod to where the inside controls were accessible.

The controls, which were located in the very back, would be easy enough to navigate with, Leia supposed. '_Of course,'_ she thought, _'Papa says that I could fly anything as long as it had controls.'_

The stomping of the stormtroopers soon died out and she decided that it would be worth the risk to jettison.

Leia took a deep breath to steady her heartbeat, and punched in the code to launch the pod. The sudden lurch that came with it was far from pleasant. The stale air wasn't helping to calm her either. Leia looked out of the viewport after a few minutes of sailing aimlessly through space and let loose a huge sigh of relief when she saw they weren't attacking the pod. It seemed that her plan of rewiring the pods systems to hide her life signs had worked after all.

Leia stared out of the viewport for several more minutes before getting a headache from the spinning stars. She shut her eyes and started to feel the heat from entering the atmosphere. It was definitely not as hot because of the cooling system, but Leia was still sweating profusely.

Despite the heat, the young woman leaned back against the insulation of the pod and tried to relax. She soon found that it was pretty much impossible, due to her father's lessons to always thinking or working to a larger goal. So she succumbed to her plans and (extremely optimistic) hopes of what would happen on this desert planet.

The ideal plan was simple: find General Obi-Wan Kenobi, convince him to help the Rebellion, find R2, find a ship, fly to Alderaan, get to Papa, and deliver the plans.

A slightly less ideal was more complicated: find General Kenobi, beg and plea on bended knee for him to help, search high and low for R2, steal a ship, fly to Alderaan, get to Papa, and deliver the plans.

The most realistic plan was exactly that; realistic. One: find and pay/threaten someone into bringing her to General Kenobi. Two: loose pride by begging for General Kenobi to help. Three: search for days on end to find R2 and most likely have to steal him. Four: pay through the nose for a crappy ship and fly to Alderaan. Five: get home and try to find Papa only to find that the Empire arrested him on false pretenses. Six: fly crazily to avoid the Imperials and get to Senator Montha. Seven: Deliver plans of Death Star to the Senator and find weakness.

'_Well, isn't that such a cheerful idea,'_ Leia thought sarcastically.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and raised herself from the slumping position she had fallen into. It was still very warm in the pod, but the heat from falling through the atmosphere had run down into heat from the two suns in the system. Leia glanced out of the viewport again, hoping to see some form of civilization, and was rewarded with a far-sighted view of a settlement.

She carefully took hold of the controls and guided the pod done onto the sand. Once done, she immediately opened the door and let the hot air blow inside, cleaning out the musty space air. Leia breathed in deeply. Even if this planet was boiling hot, it did have fresh air.

Abruptly, she shook her head to clear the heat stupor that had already started to overcome her, mixing with her exhaustion, and briskly started out of the pod and towards the direction of the settlement.

After walking for some time, she started to regret her choice of wardrobe. A long flowing dress had made sense up in space, where she'd been told the best way to stay cool on a desert planet was to cover up with something light colored and keep her hair as close to her scalp as possible.

'_I guess I'm cooler than I would be if I had worn something thicker or more form-fitting.' _Though it made sense, the thought was no comfort.

Soon Leia heard a distant, but definite, triumphant cry. Looking around cautiously, she drew out her blaster pistol and walked faster towards the town. It sounded again, closer. She walked faster. Even closer. She broke into a jog. This time it was loud enough that she knew they were within attacking distance.

Leia burst into a sprint. She chanced a glance behind her, trying to see how big a threat was attacking her, and saw several masked humanoid creatures chasing her on large, furry, horned mounts. Unfortunately, while she was turned around, she didn't see a trench in the sand and tripped, sinking knee deep into the coarse sand.

She immediately cursed herself for her stupidity. _'Turing around while running? How much of an idiot can you be?'_

The sand slipped around her as she tried to pull herself out. The grunting and shrieking was getting nearer as she struggled in the sand. She yanked an arm up and shot her blaster. An extra loud yell alerted her to the injury of the creature.

Regrettably, that only seemed to infuriate them even more. Leia chanced another glance behind her, still trying to pull herself out of the mess of sand, and saw that four or five had climbed off of their mounts and were starting to descend on her. '_No,'_ she corrected herself, _'they're right on top of you, so get out of here!'_

Leia dug even more furiously and managed to free one leg, but still was stuck in the sand half-way up her calf on one leg. In less than a few blinks, the creatures were right behind her, and pain shot its way into the back of her head. The impact caused her to fall directly into the sand in front of her and Leia felt the particles burning her skin.

Blackness stated to swim in front of her vision. Her arms…they weren't normally that heavy. There was some warm liquid dripping onto her neck. Another loud battle cry from the masked things sounded above her.

'_No, I am not going to die like this,'_ she thought doggedly. But the blackness was getting thickening and the triumphant yell was…it wasn't _fading_, she realized, it was changing into screams and shrieks of fear. And someone was shooting a blaster. And he was yelling. Yes, it was defiantly a man. Maybe it was a boy, because the voice wasn't that deep.

She was being turned over, and her head was being supported by a calloused hand. _'I was right,'_ Leia thought. It had been a man, young but not a boy. Maybe her age.

"Can you hear me?" he said to her.

Leia tried to speak, but her throat was stuck. She managed a nod instead.

"Good. Tell me, what's your name?"

A grunt came out of her mouth rather than her name.

"Okay, well, I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm gonna help you. Just relax."

Leia felt the man lift up and start to carry her somewhere. One last thought crossed her head before she lost consciousness: '_Luke… what a nice name.'_

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**My policy with multi-chap. stories. I must get one review before I post the next chapter! Be brave, readers. Only one of you can make a difference!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Filler is my nemesis. It's out to get me. It is evil. But I did it! I posted the second chapter of my first multi-chap in years! I don't own this because I don't work for a mouse.**

**I would also like to thank everyone who read and/or reviewed, and a very, very, very big thanks to ClosetFMAFan for being my editor and putting up with my constant "is it good? is it good? is it good?"**

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The first thing that Leia noticed when she woke up was that her head felt like a battalion of stormtroopers had marched over it. The second was that it was remarkably cooler than when she had fallen unconscious.

She struggled to open her eyes fully and try to figure out where the heck she was, but soon lost that battle and she settled back onto the semi-soft surface. As she was lying there, she tried to remember what had happened. Shouting creatures in masks. Pain in her head. A boy carrying her... somewhere.

'_I guess I'm in that somewhere. Now if I could just find out where that somewhere is, I'd be fine,' _Leia thought, feeling annoyed at not knowing her own situation. She tried to open her eyes again, managed to open them a crack, and then shook her head slightly to rid it of the heaviness.

"You're awake! Good, I was starting to think you wouldn't wake up at all," said a voice to her left. Leia turned her head towards the owner of the voice —the young man who had saved her— sitting in a chair beside her.

She looked at him, trying to remember his name, when he shifted in his seat awkwardly, and told her, "My aunt said that you would probably have a concussion when you woke up, are you feeling alright?"

"Fine," Leia mumbled, then spoke more clearly, "I'm fine, thank you, Mister…"

"Mister? That feels weird. I'm just Luke, Luke Skywalker." He held out his hand to shake and she took it.

"My name is Leia. Leia…Panteer," Leia replied, rationalizing the use of a false name with the fact that Tatooine wasn't exactly known for being legal, and a princess on the run from the Empire would probably get a pretty big bounty.

Luke studied her for a moment before asking, "You're an outlander, aren't you?"

Leia bit her lip and nodded. If she had known it was going to be _that _obvious… "How could you tell?"

"Well, you're kinda pale, 'specially compared to me, and I've lived here all my life." To prove it, he extended one of his tanned forearms and placed it next to her white ones. "And your hair is dark, and that doesn't happen when you're under the suns."

Leia nodded absently, and reached up to touch her hair. She frowned when she felt the length of cloth wrapped around part of her head.

Luke noticed her feeling the bandage. He gave Leia a slight smile. "My aunt was complaining about your hair making it hard to put the bandage on, but I don't think she _really_ minded too much."

Something he said stuck a chord in Leia's head. "Your aunt?"

Luke nodded, and turned partially around in his chair. "Aunt Beru! She's awake!" he called over his shoulder. An older woman came through the low doorway, and walked over to Leia. She sat down on the edge of the bed Leia was on and looked over her.

Leia tensed under her examination (she had always hated whenever she was stuck in someone else's care, especially a stranger), but it would be discourteous to refuse and she couldn't afford to offend this woman.

"Soooo…," Luke said, as the woman unwrapped the bandage circulating Leia's head, "Where are you from?"

Leia shifted slightly, her mind working furiously to come up with little-known planet. "Vanaheim," she claimed, "it's a small planet in the Mid Rim."

"What's it like there?"

"Mountainous, with big oceans," Leia murmured, purposefully coloring her voice with wistfulness. Her lie seemed to work on Luke, because his eyes turned dreamy, no doubt imagining the large bodies of water.

The woman smile as she thoroughly inspected the place Leia had been hit by the creatures. She brushed her fingers over the spot gently, and although Leia gave an involuntary flinch, she nodded in apparent satisfaction.

"The swelling has gone down a lot," she said, "Now, dear, what's your name?"

"I'm Leia, Leia Panteer."

She held out her hand, and the woman took it saying, "Beru Lars, a pleasure to meet you."

"I think that you'll be fine," she continued, "but you have to rest and take it easy." Mrs. Lars gave Leia another smile and left the room.

Luke started to not-so-subtlety stare at her. Eventually, Leia laid back down on the pillow and stared at the ceiling.

She heard Luke shift in his seat. "Are you comfortable?" he asked her.

Leia hesitated. "Fairly," she said civilly, "Would you mind if I asked you a question?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"Where am I?"

"My house." Even if she couldn't see it, Leia knew that Luke was smiling at his tease. She gave an exaggerated frown in response.

He laughed slightly. "You're about fourteen standard miles outside of Anchorhead."

"How far am I from where a landed?"

"Eleven miles."

_If I'm that far away will the Empire still find me before I find General Kenobi? _Leia wondered. If she was that far away from a city, would they come to find her? _Will they even know that I'm on the planet? Obviously they'll know that two pods were ejected from the ship, but do they know that I–_

A pointed cough broke into her thoughts. "Uh, Leia? Are you alright?" Luke asked, clearly concerned.

Leia smiled and nodded. "I'm fine, just thinking."

Luke looked rather relieved. "Good, I thought you were going into shock or heat fever or something."

The two sat in an awkward silence for several minutes, and Leia felt the insane urged to laugh when she saw Luke chewing on his lip. The anxious look mixed with the innocence already on his face made a very funny picture.

"Leia?" he inquired after a few more moments of silence, "Can I ask you something?"

"Discounting that? Okay," Leia joked.

Luke laughed at her jibe. "Why weren't you more prepared for a raid from the Sand People?"

Leia decided to sneak pass this question. "Sand People? Is that what attacked me?"

"Yeah. You got lucky, actually."

Leia laughed incredulously, and rubbed the spot where she had been hit. "Okay, maybe not lucky," Luke conceded, "but it defiantly could have been worse. I've known maybe six different people who were caught in raids, and maybe two of them survived."

That sobered Leia, but Luke continued plowing on with his questions. "Anyways, why would you come to this dust ball of a planet?"

_Time to lie through my teeth again_ Leia thought. She didn't like the guilty feeling that came from lying to Luke. It felt like she was betraying him somehow, but she and Luke hadn't even met before today. _They are irrational feelings _she told herself firmly.

"I'm just trying to help out my father," Leia said evasively.

"Oh." Luke looked disappointed, then interested. "Who is your father?"

Leia tensed. "Does it matter?" she said tartly, hoping to discourage talk about her father and, by extension, the Alliance.

Luke transferred his gaze to his lap in embarrassment. "Sorry," he mumbled, "I never knew my father, so I tend to ask other people about theirs…" his words trickled off.

Instantly sympathetic, Leia leaned forward and placed her hand on Luke shoulder. He looked up at her in surprise at her gesture. She gently asked him, "Is that why it was your aunt who was in here?"

He nodded and she continued, "What about you mother?"

Luke started to stare at her. "I don't know. I think she died at my birth."

"My mother died when I was just a girl," Leia said, not knowing why she choosing to trust this random boy, "so it's just been me and my father for a long time now. I don't even really remember her, I just have what my father tells me and the barest images of what she was like. Even though I've always had my family, I always felt like something was missing."

Luke smiled and said, "I know what that feels. Even when I didn't understand that Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen weren't really mommy and daddy."

They kept on staring at each other until a grinding sound reached their ears and a man yelled from somewhere inside the house. "Luke! Come on I want your help with picking out the new droids!"

Luke shook his head and blinked to rid himself to the trance that the two had been in. "I'll be right there, Uncle Owen!" he called back and stood, shooting an apologetic glance at Leia.

He left, and Leia sank into her thoughts.

_Why did I suddenly start confiding in a farm boy that I've barely even met? _She wondered. _There is no way that I would trust a normal person like that right off the bat. _Of course Leia had heard of some species that were incredibly charismatic, but humans were defiantly not on the list. She had been in enough arguments to prove that.

_I trust him,_ she realized. That in itself was strange, but trusting some person while on a mission to a criminal planet? And Leia had labeled Luke as naïve.

_That doesn't stop you from trusting him,_ said a little voice in the back of her head.

Unfortunately, that was true.

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**Review and tells me how I's did! **


	3. Chapter 3

**I feel so horrible. I really feel horrible. I mean to get this up forever ago, but I didn't. I am sooooooooooooooooo sorry.**

**If I owned this, I would feel doubly horrible. I'm glad I don't.**

* * *

Luke walked up the pourstone steps to the outside of his home. Uncle Owen was already up there, picking out the new droids that they needed.

"Luke! Luke!" Aunt Beru called from inside, and Luke ran over to the edge of the crater, placing his hands on his knee to steady himself. Aunt Beru was standing down below him, with some kind of soup or drink in her hands ("Probably to give to Leia", he muttered to himself), and obviously about to give him some form of request.

"Tell Uncle that if he gets a translator droid, make sure it speaks Bocce!" she yelled up to him, and Luke nodded vigorously in response.

"Doesn't look like we have much of a choice, but I'll remind him!" Luke turned back to sandcrawler that the Jawas were leading droids out of. A gold-plated humanoid one caught Luke's eye. _Weird, usually gold droids don't end up on Jawa sandcrawlers._

Uncle Owen had already chosen an astromech, a red R5-D4, and he gestured at the young man to look over it. Luke knelt down by the droid, probing it and brushing sand off of the metal coverings.

"Luke," Uncle Owen said in his "I'm-about-to-order-you-to-do-something-and-you-go ing-to-do-it" voice, as Luke had named it years ago. "I want you to take these droids into the garage and get them cleaned up before dinner."

Luke gave him a disappointed look, and complained, "But I wanted to go talk to Leia."

Uncle Owen looked puzzled and annoyed. "I don't care which one of your friends she is; she can wait until your chores are done."

Luke huffed, but he knew better than to keep complaining when it wouldn't do any good. He glanced over the protocol droid that his uncle had chosen, the same one he'd been eyeing earlier, and jerked his head toward the house. "Come on, let's go," he told the droid, and started walking back to his home. The protocol droid started following, but the astromech stayed, whirring, looking as stupid as a droid could.

"Come on," he called over his shoulder to it. It didn't move an inch. "Come on, Red!" he yelled again, and it finally started to move. Luke and the two droids started moving towards the pourstone building, the protocol droid stopping to look at something behind him.

Abruptly, rapid beeping started to emit from the red droid. A second later, the dome exploded. Luke gave an incredulous sigh at the piece of junk. "Uncle Owen!" he called.

"What?" the elder man said back to him.

"This droid has a bad motivator, look!" Uncle Owen finally turned to look at the busted droid, but he soon spun back away from the droid, saying angrily to the half-sized Jawa, "Say what are you trying to push on us?"

He gave a reply in Jawaese. Luke sighed, but the golden droid soon tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me, Sir, but that R2 is in prime condition, a real bargain," the droid said pompously.

Luke glanced over at the unit he was indicating, at a blue R2 unit standing in line. He gave a mental shrug. _It might make my work go faster_, he thought. "Uncle Owen!" he yelled again at his Uncle's back.

"Yeah?" came the annoyed answer.

"What about that one?" Luke gestured at the trash-can sized robot. Uncle Owen exchanged a few more words with the Jawa, and a group of other Jawas came to grab the smoking machine.

"Yeah, take it away," he said absently to the Jawas.

The droid started talking again. "I'm sure you'll be pleased with him, Sir. He really is in first-class condition; I've worked with him before. Here he comes."

It was coming, slowly but surely, and Luke sighed impatiently at the speed he was going. As soon as it caught up with the two, he led them back to the house.

~o0o~DON'T FORGETTOTAKETHISOUT

"Thank the maker! The oil bath is going to feel _so_ good! I've got such a bad case of dust contamination, I can barely move." the droid cried as it was lowered into the oil vat. Luke sat nearby, playing with one of his Starship Models, and not hearing anything that the robot was saying.

"It just isn't fair!" he exclaimed, moving to adjust the oil vat temperature. "Biggs is right, I'm never getting out of here!"

"Is there anything I may do, Sir?" the droid asked.

"Not unless you can change time and speed up the harvest, or teleport me off this rock." Luke knelt to "eye" level with the R2 Unit and started cleaning him. He took his frustration out on a particularly stubborn bit of dirt decorating the R2 unit.

"I don't think so, Sir. I'm only a droid, and not very knowledgeable about such things. Luke shook his at the droids seriousness. "In fact, I not even sure which planet I'm on."

Luke continued to rub at the R2 unit. "Well, if there's a bright side to the universe you're on the planet that it's farthest from."

"I see, Sir."

"Oh, you can call me Luke."

"I see, Sir Luke."

Luke smiled slightly, and told him, "No, just Luke."

"Oh. I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations. And this is my counterpart, R2-D2."

Luke glanced up from the scoring he was scrubbing at. "Hello," he said, "Well, my little friend, you've got some carbon scoring here. Looks like you boys have seen some action."

He heard 3PO come to stand behind him. "With all we've been through, I surprised we're in as good shape as we are, what with the rebellion and all."

That caught Luke's attention. "You're involved with the rebellion against the Empire?"

"That's how we came to be in your service, if you get my meaning, Sir," 3PO replied.

"Have you been in many battles?"

"Several, I think," 3PO claimed. "Actually, there's not much to tell. I'm not much more than an interpreter, and not very good at telling stories."

Luke sighed and knelt down beside the smaller droid again. _What is this thing?_ He thought as he focused his thoughts back onto cleaning R2 and tried to wiggle something out of the information port.

"Well, my little friend, you've got something jammed in here real good," he grunted to the smaller one, then said to 3PO, "Were you on a star cruiser or a−" R2 started and let off a small bolt of electricity, causing Luke to jump back. The droid started projecting a small beam of light, and a young woman took shape in the hologram.

"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope," she begged quietly. The holo flickered and she said again, "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."

Luke's mouth dropped open in shock. The young woman, miniature and glowing, was the very same girl he had saved from the sandpeople twenty-four hours ago. Leia kept saying the same mantra, then flicking and repeating it again. Luke stared at the recording absently, not paying attention to the beeps and scandalized words coming from the two robots, and not paying attention to the faint voice telling him he had heard that name before.

"R2, you cannot simply start a message, especially concerning the princess, and then−" Luke cut 3PO off quickly when he heard him called Leia "princess."

"Princess?" Luke yelped as he registered the title.

"Yes, Sir, Princess Leia of Alderaan. She was on out transport, but as it was attacked−" Luke waved his hand, effectively cutting the droid off.

"Here, see what you can do with him," Luke said, shoving the rag he'd been using into the protocol droid's hand. "I have to go do something."

Luke raced out of the garage, his mind racing. One minute, you're saving pretty girl from sandpeople. Then you learn that said pretty girl is actually a princess from Alderaan who's looking for a guy named Obi-Wan Kenobi. _And who the heck is Obi-Wan Kenobi?_ he thought angrily.

He stomped up the steps to the spare bedroom and threw open the door, startling the young woman sitting on the bed behind it. He stalked through the threshold and collapsed onto the chair he had occupied before. Luke leaned forward and inquired incredulously, "You're a princess? Why didn't you tell me?"

Leia flinched backwards, and fell against the pillows, regardless of the soup in her lap. "How did know?" she asked quietly, but guardedly.

Luke leaned back against the chair and turned to stare at the blank wall to his left, his jaw set. "There was a recording in the R2 unit that my uncle bought today. I was cleaning it and I came across part of the message."

"What part?" Leia sounded suspicious, defensive even, and Luke turned his head back to look at her face. It was determined and angry.

Luke sighed and tried to soften his tone. "You were saying 'Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.'"

Leia raised her eyebrow. "You heard nothing else of the message?" She sounded skeptical.

"No," Luke admitted, "but the droids were talking about how R2 had a recording of the _princess_, so I managed to piece it together."

"Well, that doesn't really matter," Leia snapped, "What does matter is what you're going to do now you know."

Luke shifted in his seat, not liking the implication Leia had flavored the words with. "First I want to know who you really are, and what you're doing here," he decided leaning forward and putting his elbows onto his knees.

Leia looked sharply at him, but he stared steadily at her, and her shoulders dropped, her mouth pressing into thin line. "My name is Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan," she spat out. "I am a member of the Imperial Senate, and that was my R2 unit which I sent here to give a message to General Obi-Wan Kenobi, whom I am looking for."

Now that shock and anger weren't clouding his head, Luke recognized where he had heard the name Kenobi before. True, it wasn't common that people talked about the old hermit, but Luke had met Ben Kenobi once. "Obi-Wan Kenobi, I wonder if he's related to Ben," Luke though aloud.

Leia sat up poker straight. "Do you know where General Kenobi is?"

"Well," the young man started awkwardly, "I don't know anyone named Obi-Wan…but ol' Ben is a weird old hermit that lives in the Jundland Wastes, across the Dune Sea."

"Do you think he may have an idea where General Kenobi is?"

"He might, but we won't be able to ask him just yet."

"Why not? We should go now, so that−"

"Luke! Leia! It's time to eat!" Beru's voice called from the other side of the house.

Luke smiled at Leia's startled expression. "That's one of the reasons that we can't go just yet. You can't get to Ben's alone, and my uncle wouldn't really like it if I just left to go to his place. Now come on, if we don't get down there soon, my uncle will get grumpy." He stood and offered Leia his hand.

She took it and slid out of the bed. "Well, I'd best not be rude to my generous hosts," she quipped, one corner of her mouth turning up.

Luke returned it with a grin. "Generous? Me and my aunt…sure. Uncle Owen…are we talking about the same person?"

They chuckled and walked down the dinning section of the house, pausing twice to let Leia steady herself from bouts of dizziness. Eventually, the made it down to the table and sat down to join Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. A few seconds of silence prevailed as all four of them started in on the meal.

Luke caught Leia's eye for a millisecond, then said as casually as he could to his uncle, "You know, I think that R2 unit we bought might have been stolen."

Uncle Owen grunted indifferently, and Luke felt a flash of annoyance. "Why is that, Luke?"

Luke opened his mouth to tell him, but he caught Leia's eye and she shook her head slightly, and abruptly changed his words. "I saw a recording to someone called Obi-Wan Kenobi," he claimed, focusing on his dinner instead of looking his guardians in the eye. "I thought they might of meant ol' Ben…do you know what there's talking about?" _Of course, I already know. But if they know something…and this could be my chance to get off the rock,_ Luke thought.

"That wizard's just a crazy old man," Uncle Owen said firmly. "Now tomorrow, I want you to take both those droids to Anchorhead and have their memory wiped. They belong to us now."

Luke glanced at Leia before staring at his uncle. She looked normal, but he could somehow tell that she was holding back a retort. He tried to think quickly of an excuse not to do this. "What if this Obi-Wan, or whoever comes to get him back?"

"I doubt that's going to happen," Uncle Owen answered, "He doesn't exist anymore. I think he died about the same time as your father."

Leia gave a small squeak of shock that Luke was sure only he had heard, as once he heard those words, he had immediately exclaimed, "He knew my father?"

Uncle Owen fixed him with a hard stare. "I told you to forget it. Now, I want you to have those droids up on the south ridge by morning."

Luke looked back down at his dinner again. He poked at the dish, one that no matter who tried, it was never as good Aunt Beru's. He glanced at Leia again, seeing that she was smoothly eating, though it seemed she was angry. She looked up sharply, sensing his stare and the intensity in it. _I have always been good at telling other people's emotions_, he thought sheepishly.

The four ate in silence. Eventually, Luke finished his food, and politely asked Aunt Beru if he could be excused. She smiled and nodded for him to leave. He stood up, stretched discreetly, and walked up the stairs to the outside of the house.

Luke had always loved the sunset, especially when he had had a full day, like the one that had just past. The suns were sinking visibly behind the horizon, casing a golden glow onto the dunes.

He heard someone coming up behind him, and soon Leia appeared in the corner of his eye, also staring out at the sunset.

She started to speak. "I want to thank you. You saved me from the sand people, and you've been nothing but kind to me since. I'll be leaving tonight, to try and get back to my planet."

Luke turned away from the suns to look at her. She looked like an angel in the light, especially in her gauzy white dress and the bandage across her head making an improvised halo.

However, Luke understood how ignorant she was acting. He told her, "You can't do that."

"You think you can hold me back?" Leia snapped, raising her eyebrow.

Luke flinched at her icy tone. "I meant that sand people go raiding during the night," he said contritely, "You'd either get killed or captured without shelter."

"I have to get back to my father."

"Okay, but you can't− shouldn't, I mean− go out at night. It's too dangerous."

She gave him a narrowed-eyed glared. Luke hastily reassured her, "You could set out in the morning. Besides, I thought you were going to find this Obi-Wan."

Leia gave him a disbelieving look. "You didn't hear your uncle? General Kenobi is dead." She turned back to the sunset.

"You don't know he's really dead."

"You think your uncle is wrong?"

"Maybe. Besides, I know a Ben Kenobi. They might be related or something. We can start looking in the morning."

"We?" Leia sounded surprised at his offer.

"Yeah, I mean…you probably couldn't find Ben on your own…and I want you to find…him…" Luke trickled off. Leia smiled at his awkward answer.

"Thank you Luke," she said, turning her head back to the sunset. Luke studied her profile for a few moments, and then turned back to the red sunset.

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**Okay, I left the story for the end: I started to write this, but then my computer's battery outlet (what is that thing called) broke, so it didn't charge. Once I had exhausted the battery, I couldn't do anything, but now I'm borrowing my sister's computer, and I get to write again. Then, I had major writer's block, my teachers are evil, and ClosetFMAFan (my editor) took forever in editing it.**

**I know I shouldn't have left you guys for so long, but for the sake of the longest chapter yet, review?Please? Anybody? Anybody?**


	4. Chapter 4

**So. Anybody still there? Still waiting for me to update this? Because I promise, I feel absolutely horrible that I didn't do it sooner. I plan to get the next one up sooner, too. Hello? Hello? Is anyone there, because my lawyer says I should have a witness for everything. Can anyone witness that I don't own Star Wars? This is a lame author's note, isn't it? Just...read the chapter.**

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Squinting to see in front of her, Leia leaned forward in the speeder. Her stomach fluttered as Luke quickly accelerated the speeder, skimming over endless mounds of sand. Luke hadn't been exaggerating when he said it would be a long journey. _What he failed to mention was the heat_, Leia thought, leaning back against the hard seat.

She glanced at Luke, who wasn't showing _any_ signs of being overheated. Of course he had been raised on this wretched planet, but still with this heat… Leia shook her head to clear the heat spell on it.

"How far is it?" she asked Luke, talking loudly to be heard over the engine.

"Dunno. We're not too far out. A few miles from the farm?" Luke's tone made it a question. Leia swallowed a sigh of impatience. Her diplomatic training kicked in, freezing her tongue, but she still ached to tell Luke to hurry up.

"We'll get to ol' Ben's place soon enough, Leia," Luke said, sensing her frustration.

"If we don't faint from the heat," she muttered. Luke flashed a quick smile at her.

"It's not too hot." He caught sight of her expression. "At least not by Tattoine standards. Besides, I've been Heimjotun– it's a snow planet in the next system over– and I was freezing the entire time we were there."

"Why were you on a snow planet?"

"My friend Biggs, his family's rich, so they can take vacations every once in a while, and Biggs convinced them to take me along. It was the first vacation I've ever been on, and the first time I'd ever seen snow."

"Really? How did you take it?"

"I refused to believe that it was water until Biggs' parents melted some of it for me. After that I was stuffing as much as I could handle into my mouth." Leia laughed loudly.

"What happened?"

"I got a fever and had to eat nothing but broth and fire medicine."

"Fire medicine?"

"It's what I call prednisone."

Leia shuddered in sympathy. She glanced ahead of her again and just noticed them passing a pole that was twisting down to the ground.

"What's that?"

Luke glanced back at the thing. "It means that we're two hours away from people who will care to listen to us before they shoot us." He saw her shocked expression. "Don't worry; sandpeople are really easy to avoid and they're the only people who won't care at all. And it shouldn't take more than a good hour or two to get to the edge of the Jundland Wastes."

Leia took a couple (supposedly) calming breathes. _Stop being impatient, Leia,_ she commanded herself. _We'll get to this Ben Kenobi and find out any information that he has. There is nothing that you can do but wait._ The thought was not comforting.

~! #$%^&*()_+

Half of an hour didn't yield many results. They had been stopped by two Jawa Sandcrawlers and had only narrowly missed an encounter with sand people, but they didn't seem to be any closer to "ol' Ben's place" than they had before.

Leia had long since decided she hated this planet's terrain and climate. Especially the climate. To add to her bag of worries, she had also been feeling a strong instinct of "get away, get away, get away" filling her chest. Papa always said to use your head first, but there were times that Leia's instincts overrode everything else, and now was one of those times.

Abruptly, Luke cut the power of the speeder. Leia looked quizzically at him, and he bit his lip. "Leia," he began tentatively, "Something's wrong."

Leia's frown deepened. "What makes you say that?"

"I don't know, it's just…I have this feeling…" Luke threw up his hands in frustration. Leia reached for his shoulder, pacing her small hand on it.

"It's just a feeling, Luke. We need to keep moving and get to Ben Kenobi," she chided gently.

Luke shrugged her hand off. "Leia, my instincts are_ never_ wrong. There was this one time that I just knew that a 'vaporator was going to blow, and a few minutes later it exploded. Another time, I was with my friend Biggs–"

Leia tuned out his ramblings, looking around as the same feeling Luke described assaulted her. Nothing around them seemed incredibly dangerous.

But that didn't sway the feelings of peril.

"Luke?" she asked quietly, interrupting a story with a bantha and his uncle's water supply. "I know the feeling you're talking about."

Luke looked anxious, and bit his lip. "I think it's about the farm."

"I'm sure everything is fine." Leia's words were empty even as she said them.

"Leia…we have to go back," said Luke desperately, "something's _wrong_."

Leia's heart beat rapidly. She felt it too. Luke's family was in trouble, they needed help. But if they went to help, they'd get stuck the same spot.

She knew what the right thing to do was. This was two living breathing beings, and they deserved to live, but if she and Luke turned back they might not find this Ben Kenobi. She had promised Papa. She had a duty to the Alliance. She couldn't stop searching for the one person who could possibly have information that could save them.

Leia opened her mouth to tell him to keep going to Ben Kenobi's home, but instead what came out was, "Let's go. We'd better see if anything has gone wrong."

The trip back wreaked havoc on Leia's stomach. She had underestimated how fast the rusted tin can could go, but she was impressed by how expertly Luke handled it. However, instead of admiring Luke's skills, most of her mind-power was focusing on keeping her breakfast down and the feeling of overwhelming worry from showing on her face.

Luke wasn't so adept at it. He was absolutely terrified– Leia could see it. _But he might not have a reason to be_, a small, hopeful voice whispered in her mind. However, Leia knew that was a longshot. Luke had said that his feelings were hardly ever wrong. Leia's weren't ever wrong either.

She smelled the smoke before she saw it.

The pourstone structure was partially cave in, smoke pouring from inside it. Blaster holes decorated the structure, the garage, and the ground around the homestead. Armor, dirtied, but unmistakably white, was lying in pieces around the home. A shoddy barricade that had been made out of crates had been broken and burned. And behind the crates…

Luke made a sound between a gasp and a gulp at the sight of his aunt and uncle's burned skeletons. He dropped to his knees, head bowed, a horrified expression on his face. "Aunt Beru! Uncle Owen!" he called desperately.

Tears started fall on his cheeks, and Leia felt one run down her too. She crashed down next to him. "Oh, Luke, I'm so, so, sorry."

"No…"

"Luke, this is my fault, I'm sorry."

"Who would…" His voice came out in a whisper and he wasn't able to finish his sentence. Leia could feel the waves of grief coming off him.

"Luke, it was stormtroopers," Leia said gently. "Look." She pointed to pieces of white armor scattered across the destroyed homestead.

"But why would Imperials want to destroy our farm? Why would they want to kill Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen?"

Leia winced. "Luke, it's because of me. They…they wanted to kill me." She could barely get it out. Her guards being killed by Imperials was one thing; Luke's only family being killed was another. Her guards knew there was a good chance they wouldn't be able to say a final good bye to their families, but Luke's Aunt and Uncle were innocents. They didn't have anything to do with stormtoopers or Vader or the Empire.

"But you're a princess! A leader! They can't kill you! Why would they even try?" He was yelling. Leia had seem men lose their families, even had to report it to the families, and usually yelling wasn't a good sign. It meant that that person was about to do something they end up regretting.

Hence, Leia spoke cautiously. "Luke, they wanted me because I'm a leader."

Luke was sitting up now, staring at her confusedly. Leia continued, "I am a princess, and a senator, but I'm also marked for execution."

"Why do they want to kill you?" Luke's voice was calmer now, no anger, but a heavy sense of sadness.

"Because I'm a traitor." Luke's eyes widened. "I am a leader of the Rebel Alliance."

"The rebellion? Against the Empire?" Leia couldn't tell what Luke was thinking because of the myriad of emotions in his voice. She nodded. "And Ben? What about Obi-Wan Kenobi?"

"He's a general who disappeared years ago. He was friends with my father, so we hoped that he might be able to help us against the Empire," Leia told him.

"You're going to get rid of the Empire."

"Yes."

"You're going to get rid of their government."

"Yes."

Silence fell between them as Luke contemplated her words. He stood up, the determined expression on his face taking Leia off-guard. He swallowed visibly. "Let's go."

"Go?" Of all the things that Leia expected, that was not one of them.

Luke nodded. "You need to get to Ben's house."

"What about your aunt and uncle?"

Luke smiled feebly. "I can hear Uncle Owen now: 'When there's no moisture in the air, why put a 'vaporator there?"

Leia nodded, unsure whether or not to smile. Luke reached down a trembling hand, and Leia took it.

They moved away from the burning building and to the speeder hand-in-hand.

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**Congratulations****! You made it! Now review! If you do, I have an excuse to check my email more often than I should. **


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